X-Men: The Last Stand
Over The Hedge
RV
X-Men: The Last Stand
I'm not exactly an X-Men fan. The two first installments might have been entertaining enough, but they were flawed, and this is basically how I feel about the third installment as well. However, I did have a good time watching "X-Men: The Last Stand." It's enthusiastic, action-packed and filled with ample visual effects 's basically really good popcorn entertainment. The multiple-character structure is less of a narrative stumbling block this time around, thanks to the fact that the super characters were introduced and built up in the first two features. As it turns out, director-for-hire Brett Ratner was the perfect man to take over for previous director Bryan Singer. Ratner flawlessly carries on the same style that Singer began in the first X-Men film 's no confusion there.
( Julie Vinten )
Director Brett Ratner does away with the pseudo-intellectual subtexts and atmospherics that Bryan Singer tried to distinguish the previous "X-Men" films with and the result is a shamelessly enjoyable mutant-on-mutant extravaganza. A wealthy businessman funds the research that leads to a "cure" for the mutant gene after discovering his own son is a closet mutant. But the dissident Magneto (Ian McKellen) is none too pleased and raises an army of multi-talented militant mutants to destroy the cure (and humans) once and for all. "X-Men: The Last Stand" is the most entertaining part of the trilogy and, best of all, it kills off several of the most annoyingly self-righteous characters. You can only marvel at Marvel Comics' ability to appeal to all the overgrown children out there.
( Tim Ochser )
Over The Hedge
With "Over the Hedge" DreamWorks has made an altogether engaging animated feature that has something to offer all ages. An animal family wakes up from hibernation only to find that their beloved forest has been hacked away by suburban sprawl. A streetwise raccoon comes to the group's rescue, revealing the wonders of suburbia 's where one man's junk (food) is another's treasure. The obligatory themes of family, friendship and honesty are there, but the feature is far from overly sentimental and moralizing. Most of all, the film is a joyful satire on American suburbia and fast food/consumer society. Voiced by a number of prominent actors whose characters carry wonderful zest, "Over the Hedge" is a fast-paced, well-told and very funny movie.
1/2 ( Julie Vinten )
"Over the Hedge" is a beautiful example of both animation and humor. With the heart of "Finding Nemo," but twice as pithy, this movie will have children laughing Coke out their noses and adults wondering just how DreamWorks does it. The detail of the CGI is stunning - from the film's luminescent color to Lou the porcupine's quivering quills. But the true brilliance of "Over the Hedge" lies in the script's sharp wit and biting satire of consumerist America. Through the eyes of a dozen naive but endearing forest creatures, the absurdity of modern suburbia is magnified to a hysterical, yet frighteningly accurate level. The sequence when RJ the raccoon (Bruce Willis), the furry group's mischievous ringleader, first introduces the animals to "people" and their gluttonous way of life is pure genius.
( Tim Ochser )
RV
At best, someone who owns an RV may find reason to laugh at this comedy 's I wouldn't know. To me, it's a total misfire. From the beginning, the film goes terribly wrong, so much so that it has you wondering why Barry Sonnenfeld, director of "Men in Black" and "Get Shorty," would voluntarily agree to make this kind of junk. Actor Robin Williams fathers a family that constantly badmouths and aggravates each other. Still, he loves his spoiled kids and ungrateful wife, and decides to take them on a road trip that, naturally, has enough dangers and silly situations to transform the bunch into an All-American, nuclear family. This is an empty, superficial and absolutely unfunny feature. There are moments where it sinks to the "Cheaper by the Dozen"-level - and it isn't pretty.
1/2 ( Julie Vinten )
Bob Munro (Robin Williams) sets off on a cross-country holiday with his family in a rented RV, while concealing from them that the real purpose of the trip is a business presentation he has to give in Colorado. "RV" is an utterly loathsome film whose depiction of family life is the stuff of nightmare rather than comedy. Robin Williams inanely grins his way through this moral morass and, guess what, in the end his family learns to…like him. You would find more to admire in a dysfunctional family of dung beetles than this grotesque nuclear family from hell. I have always found Robin Williams' smile to be one of the most offensively insincere and sickening sights imaginable and here is no exception. He was more loveable playing a psychopathic murderer in "One Hour Photo."
( Tim Ochser )
